ISAW Papers 7 (2014)

Current Practice in Linked Open Data for the Ancient World

Abstract: Reports on current work relevant to the role of Linked Open Data (LOD) in the study of the ancient world. As a term, LOD encompasses approaches to the publication of digital resources that emphasize stability, relatively fine-grained access to intellectual content via public URIs, and re-usability as defined both by publication of machine reabable data and by publication under licenses that permit further copying of available materials. This collection presents a series of reports from participants in 2012 and 2013 sessions of the NEH-funded Linked Ancient World Data Institute. The contributors come from a wide range of academic disciplines and professional backgrounds. The projects they represent reflect this range and also illustrate many stages of the process of moving from concept to implementation, with a focus on results achieved by the mid 2013 to early 2014 timeframe.

The primary focus of the project is notice and comment on open access material relating to the ancient world, but I will also include other kinds of networked information as it comes available.

The ancient world is conceived here as it is at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, my academic home at the time AWOL was launched. That is, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pacific, from the beginnings of human habitation to the late antique / early Islamic period.

AWOL is the successor to Abzu, a guide to networked open access data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East and the Ancient Mediterranean world, founded at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago in 1994. Together they represent the longest sustained effort to map the development of open digital scholarship in any discipline.